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Remembering what?

Every year on May 8 we have national celebrations in memory of VE Day. It was 63 years and 2 days ago that Germany signed the formal, unconditional surrender of all of their forces to the allies. This sparked off enormous celebrations in countries all over the world and every year we have continued to celebrate the victory of the forces of freedom over the murderous tyrannies of Nazism and Fascism.

But where does Germany sit while elsewhere all over the world people celebrate? Are there huge German demonstrations against their treatment at the hands of the Allies in the post surrender world? Are people marching in dresden demanding reparations for the Allied firebombing of their city resulting in thousands of deaths? Are there German refugees protesting at the fact that they were forced out of their homes by the victorious Russian, American and British armies? Are there or have there ever been demands by the Germans for mass arrests of the tens of thousands of Russian soldiers who raped German women indiscriminately as they rampaged through the Eastern half of their country at the end of the war?

Many, many atrocities were committed against German soldiers during WWII, they were perpetrated on a local level by soldiers advancing and they were perpetrated systematically by bodies such as the RAF by destroying German civilian targets including schools and hospitols, have the Germans ever attempted to take any of the pilots and generals to court for this?

The answer to all of these questions is NO, the reason for this is simple WWII was a war begun by Germany and perpetrated against the citizens of Europe, North Africa and Russia. For Germany to demand reparations for damage caused in a war that they started is a ridiculous concept, furthermore it was clear that the alies both then and now were unlikely to hear such testimony and would be able to come back with some far worse testimony about German soldiers’ activities during the war.

Instead of doing any of these things the Germans accepted the help of their former enemies in rebuilding their country, they endured it being divided in half and celebrated at its eventual reunion over 40 years later, rather than looking back the Germans looked forward and built up an economic powerhouse of a country with a democratic government and free society.

Now lets look at the Palestinians: for the record Yes Jewish soldiers forced Palestinians away from their homes 60 years ago, for the record Yes it was the Palestinian community that declared war on Israel even before statehood had been declared, by initiating guerilla actions against Kibbutzim, Jewish towns and villages. It was irregulars that placed 100,000 Jews under siege in Jerusalem and murdered and looted their way from one Jewish settlement to the next.

I wonder what the British government would say if, every year, as we celebrate VE day over here the Germans held mass demonstrations and rallies? I wonder how this would affect the harmony of nations in Europe and the world. Thankfully residents of the UK are not forced to account for the actions of every single British soldier during the Second world War and British generals are unlikely to be taken to court for atrocities that are happening today in Iraq and Afghanistan. Personally I find it hard to tell the difference between accusations levelled at Israel and what is happening in these countries.

It is true that the Palestinians are hurting Israel by this continued concept of “The Nakba” but they are hurting themselves far more. By choosing consistently to be the victims rather than actually accepting any sovereignty that has been offered to them and building up their own country with embassies around the world and all of the other trappings of state they have made it harder for anyone to be able to deal with them without first having to go through their enemy Israel.

I find it incredible that the Palestinian leadership is still choosing to foster this concept of Nakba, this idea of negativity, of being losers, of saying, essentially, “we did lose the 1948 war but we are going to remain in our refugee camps until you, Israel who gave the lives of 1% of your population fighting the war we started, give us everything that we waned in the first place”

I am not ashamed of the actions of my country in building the State of Israel and when I look at the treatment of Jews around the world pre and post Israel I can be nothing but glad for her existence, let hypocrits talk all they like about us it doesn’t matter any more for now and forever we have a state of our own!